Nazeem Hussain believes he’s a lot like his new children’s book character, Harry the Hyena.   

“It’s not an overtly ethnic experience,” he says. “You know, obviously they’re hyenas. They don’t have nationality. But I think if you know who I am and if you understand my experience… you’ll probably start to see your own ethnic experience, or just, like, maybe a broke [person’s] experience reflected in the book.”

Hussain is a household name to most South Asians growing up in Australia, headlining the classic shows 'Legally Brown', 'Orange is the New Brown', and 'Salam Café', as well as his own Netflix comedy special, 'Nazeem Hussain: Public Frenemy'. 

Without comedy tours during the pandemic and more time to spend with his son, Hussain dabbled in a new side of his creativity. 

'Hy-larious Hyena!' is about Harry, the titular hyena, who has a penchant for pranks and who doesn’t quite know when not to cross the line. At the heart of his stunts is a desire to be cool and fit in, not just within his own community in The Pits but amongst the lions who live in the elite Mane Lands, where he hopes to live when he grows up. The choice to make Harry a trouble-maker was an easy one – his son has a preference for naughty characters. If you’ve seen his comedy, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Hussain does as well.

“The story was just a prankster hyena that was naughty,” Hussain explains. “And then, as I started to build his world, it started to look a little bit more like my own life.”

Not fitting in

Not unlike Scar’s henchmen in 'The Lion King', real life hyenas are known for their bark which sounds like raucous laughter, as well as its tendency to scavenge through the leftovers of the savannah’s apex predators.

Hussain says that, like hyenas, his upbringing wasn’t glamorous. “I could relate to being someone who grew up in a family that didn’t have everything. We made do with what we had. Humour was a big part of our survival.”

Trying to fit in, he says, is a universal experience for every child, but every brown kid grows up feeling uncomfortable in their own skin.

“We all had to, sort of, water down parts of our identity, which is not necessarily a healthy thing to do. But it is a part of our experience.”

Harry, much like Hussain, also strives to fit in. He mentions his name is actually Haroon, a name used by his extended family, but he only refers to himself in its anglicised form. And while he has plenty of friends in his own community, his sights are on the Mane Lands where the grass is greener – particularly, he wants to be like Larry the Lion, who in Heath McKenzie’s illustrations is depicted wearing what can only be a private boys’ school blazer. 

Animals don’t have a nationality, but Larry is clearly not ethnic, nor without privilege.

Exceptional by default

With new perspective as a father, Hussain realised the South Asian and Muslim community he grew up around was exceptional – they had to be, in order to succeed. 

He gives special credit to his mother as an ideal for him to strive towards. Being a single mum of two came with obvious financial issues, but Hussain’s mother also had to deal with the stigma of being a divorced Sri Lankan Muslim. He says she raised him and his sister to go beyond surviving and thrive on their own, and to never settle for mediocrity. He sees this drive reflected throughout his community, and it’s only in hindsight that he sees how phenomenal their stories were.

This sense of community is crucial to the book. Harry the Hyena interacts with a (sometimes easily fooled) intergenerational family – Old Uncle Mo, Aneesa, his cousin Meena, (based on Hussain’s own sister, Azmeena). They look out for each other, reflective of Hussain’s experience growing up in his community in suburban Melbourne. “I could relate most, I guess, to hyenas because, you know, they often live in packs. 

“It takes a village, they say, to raise someone, so in Harry’s case, it definitely took a village.” 

Hussain finds inspiration in the migrant journey. “I found that, ordinarily, people don’t leave their country of birth and where all their family is unless there’s an exceptional reason to do so. So, to leave is already something special.

“But then, yeah, the people that we’ve grown up around, being exceptional is almost required for your survival here. 

“Merely being a run-of-the-mill Australian citizen isn’t going to cut it for a migrant, or someone who is considered different, or who has been routinely humiliated by the mainstream.”

Hussain is pretty exceptional by anyone’s standards – quitting a tax consultancy job to work as a stand-up comedian, and ending up nominated for two Logies and winning the Best Newcomer Award at his first Melbourne International Comedy Festival. But when asked what he was like growing up, he laughs. “I’d be someone who would do the least amount required and get away with it.”

Holding attention

For Hussain, being an author isn’t too different from being a comedian. “You gotta hold people’s attention. That’s the aim of the game. You’re fighting every minute you’re on stage to not lose the audience’s attention.” 

If you’ve been to any of his stand-up shows, or watched Legally Brown, you’ll easily pick up on his voice through Harry, who narrates the book. It’s cheeky, full of slang, and very, very Australian. He makes an animal from the African continent seem right at home in an Aussie suburb.

“The language is sort of ‘me’,” he admits. “Like it’s just the way I would say it. I tried to use language that feels very common, so that when you read it, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve heard people talk like that all the time.’”

His son is too young to read the book – though he’s very excited to see his father everywhere while joining him on book promotions – so he’s relying on the children of Australia to enjoy it. 

“I hope that kids just get through it and they want to read the next one. Obviously it's good for my career as an author and it'll help my ego feel less bruised, but I think I would hope that kids who are not necessarily into books pick this up and they're like, “Oh, this feels different. It's fun.” I don't want it to feel like a chore. I want this to feel like the opposite, like a fun experience. 

“I feel if I can sustain a kid’s attention, that’s a win.”

'Hy-Larious Hyena!' is a fictional graphic novel for children 7 and up, with artwork by Heath McKenzie. It’s on sale now at all local bookstores. 

Aditi Kutty is a writer, podcast host and video producer based in Naarm (Melbourne). She’s a member of SAARI’s Editorial Team and you can catch her on Instagram or LinkedIn.